1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an interworking method between a User Equipment (UE) and a network, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for limiting or allowing access of a UE in a packet access network (for example, Long Term Evolution (LIE)) according to conditions such as a specific frequency band and a specific location.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Home Subscriber Server (HSS) stores subscription information on a UE and registers a subscriber in an LTE/Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network. Accordingly, when the UE accesses the LTE/EPC network, the network determines whether the UE can access the network based on whether the network stored in the HSS can be accessed and the subscription information. However, the network determines whether the UE can access the LTE/EPC network regardless of the type and capability of the UE.
Specifically, the access determination of the UE is uniformly applied in all areas regardless of UE type and/or UE capability (for example, Circuit Switched Fall Back (CSFB) UE or Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE). That is, in cases with the same subscriber, whether the UE can access or not is uniformly applied regardless of UE type or UE capability. Consequently, when the same subscriber uses a different UE, for example, when the user inserts its own Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) into a UE of another user, access to the network is determined based on subscription information regardless of the another user's UE capability.
However, in order to efficiently provide frequency, a particular UE type (for example, a CSFB UE) requires a network access control function to limit the access to the network in a particular frequency band and/or location is required. For example, when an operator desires to use a specific LTE frequency band designated for a VoLTE UE, the operator should limit access of the CSFB UE to the network in the corresponding frequency band. However, conventional methods do not provide a network access control function based on a particular frequency/location or a particular UE type/UE capability.